Simplifying Christmas

I've always lived fairly simply. As a professional dancer, my focus was on training and performing. We were gypsies, and traveled much of the time. I resided in a different city for fifteen years in a row. I loved staying in hotels, seeing the world, and eating out in restaurants. We were so spoiled.

Once I bought my cottage, my lifestyle changed. For the first time since I was a teenager, I  had a dog. I decorated my home for Christmas. I bought vintage and antique furniture. I began to flourish in my nest. It was grounding to garden, grow food, cook, bake, and clean.

At Christmastime, I keep decorating simple. I have a few decorations that I put up each year. Most of them my mom gave to me. I hang a red wreath on the front door each year, and string brightly colored lights on the two live Christmas trees that flank the front door. I planted them twenty years ago. They were tiny at that time, and now they are large and majestic. I love the fact that they present the house for the holidays each year. I get so many compliments on them. They are easy to maintain, as well. I just water them, keep them well mulched, and feed them a few doses of compost tea.

My mother used to get very overwhelmed by Christmas. She put so much pressure on herself. She spent hours and hours decorating, until our home looked like Saks Fifth Avenue. She was incredibly talented, but it took her all day to put up those expensive decorations. She dreaded putting everything away after Christmas. Eventually she stopped decorating for the holidays at all. It was just too much work. Everything sat in boxes in the dark, damp basement. She was a very all or nothing personality. I've learned that less is more, as the saying goes.

I decided to make things easy on myself, and  just have one box of decorations to pull out each year. Everything  inside the house is done in about thirty minutes.  I hang the outside lights separately, the next day. My routine is to start putting things up the day after Thanksgiving. It gives the house a cozy feeling, and is very doable. It's nice not to feel upset, anxious, or pressured.

I take the same approach with the cooking, baking, and gifts. I will write more about this in upcoming posts. It is enjoyable and fun to have a simple holiday without stress and overwork. How about you?

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